Returning to Heal: Why I Created the Sankofa Reconciliation Project

In restorative justice, we often speak about returning to what was lost in order to repair what has been broken. The Sankofa Reconciliation Project was born from that calling.

Sankofa, a word from the Akan people of Ghana, means “to go back and fetch it.” It is a reminder that in order to move forward, we must return to the wisdom, truth, and histories that shape us. In the U.S., restorative justice has grown as a response to harm in schools, communities, and even the criminal legal system. But too often, our practices overlook the historical legacies that continue to shape our present realities; colonization, enslavement, and systemic oppression.

This project fills a gap in American restorative contemporary practices. While we have frameworks for harm repair in classrooms, workplaces, and communities, we rarely create spaces that directly address the historical wounds between Black and Brown communities who have carried generations of harm, and white-bodied people whose ancestry is rooted in systems of oppression. Without that reckoning, reconciliation remains incomplete.

Why Sankofa?

The Sankofa Reconciliation Project calls us to confront both personal and collective histories. It asks us to sit in truth-telling, acknowledge the harms of the past, and commit to transformation in the present. It's not about blame, it is about responsibility and humanization.

What the Sessions Call For

The project is designed as a journey:

• Session One invites participants into grounding, storytelling, and naming the histories we carry.

• Session Two splits into affinity spaces. White participants engage in unmasking whiteness- naming and dismantling the systems they have inherited. At the same time, Black and Brown participants engage in storytelling, grieving, resilience-building, and healing. When the group reconvenes, they begin a 

• Three-part circle series: 

• Circle 1 – Witnessing the Wound  Stories of harm, loss, and survival

• Circle 2 – Holding the Mirror  Naming privilege, systems, and complicit silence

• Circle 3 – Reclaiming Power & Repairing the Future

• Session Three Legacy building (culminating phase) brings participants into solution-seeking and collective visioning for justice and healing beyond the circle.

And the journey does not end in the U.S. Our final gathering will take us back to Ghana, where participants will sit in circle at Elmina Slave Castle, one of the most profound sites of historical trauma. There, we will honor our ancestors, release what we carry, and commit to reconciliation rooted in truth, memory, and love.

The Goal Ahead

My goal is to scale the Sankofa Reconciliation Project as a framework that can be used across communities, schools, organizations, and international movements. True reconciliation isn't a one time event it's a pathway towards transformation. Sankofa can help build a bridge between past harm and present healing, between communities that have inherited trauma and those that have inherited responsibility.

We must dare to return so that we may move forward together. I have immense respect for this inaugural cohort who has signed up to engage in such a deep and powerful process. We start in two weeks!!